{"id":13692,"date":"2023-12-07T14:26:59","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T13:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fundacjadomkultury.pl\/en\/?p=13692"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T13:34:10","slug":"the-exhibition-re-enchanting-the-world-by-malgorzata-mirga-tas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fundacjadomkultury.pl\/en\/the-exhibition-re-enchanting-the-world-by-malgorzata-mirga-tas\/","title":{"rendered":"The exhibition \u201cRe-enchanting the World\u201d by Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Ma\u0142gorzata Brus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

„We talk about ourselves, not someone else who just sees us from the sidelines. That is the re-enchanting of the world”. On the exhibition „Re-enchanting the World” by Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas.<\/p>\n

\u201cTravelling Images\u201d<\/b>1<\/sup><\/a> – This is the title of Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas’s works, which are being shown all over Europe in a 'wandering’ way.<\/b> After her participation in the Venice Biennale, the artist is not slowing down, her works are still being shown in prestigious galleries in Ferrara, Berlin, Gothenburg, Marseille, Seville and elsewhere. It is a tradition that the exhibition shown in the Polish Pavilion in Venice the following year is presented in the most famous art gallery in Poland – Zach\u0119ta – the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition \u201cRe-enchanting the World\u201d was open to visitors from 29 April to 23 July 2023. Art connoisseurs, as well as ordinary Varsovians and visitors, had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the artistic vision of the Roma world created by the artist. A world very different from the one known in traditional messages contained in publications, newspaper reports or other works of art, where the Roma personify the exotic 'other’, the 'stranger’, someone arousing anxiety and fear, someone we fear and therefore reflexively exclude. This essay is an attempt to outline the impact of artistic practices on socio-political mobilisation, and on changing the image of the Roma in Poland and internationally.<\/p>\n

Roma artistic activity is increasingly seen and read through the prism of decolonisation – that is, in general, a reversal of the so far unequal power relations, and an attempt to speak for themselves with their own voice and thus construct political demands regarding the social, political and cultural situation and position of Roma in the countries of which they are citizens.<\/b> Roma artists and their artistic practices are slowly but steadily rising in the public consciousness above the previous and stereotypical images of Roma created by non-Roma. However, their presence in the art world and this position was the result of many years of struggle. The relentless reproduction in art of the image of Roma as inferior and subordinate is also widely normalised, and the change in narrative is not infrequently met with opposition. Timea Junghaus (2014, 2015), among others, writes about the difficulty Roma artists had in building their position, especially in the second half of the 20th century, also emphasising the importance of the changes taking place in e.g. Central and Eastern Europe, and the role of the new Roma intelligentsia in this process. Her analysis was critical of the way in which knowledge about Roma is produced, both in the social sciences and in culture and art. But in this perception, it is art that is the field where symbolic violence of a particular kind takes place. The epistemological and, at the same time, physical colonisation of the Roma by majority societies consisted in creating images, images of Roma bodies in a specific way, in a spirit of subordination and inferiority, which ultimately meant dehumanisation, slavery and extermination. It took decades of work and efforts by various actors before we could speak of a positive paradigm shift in this field. It has been a difficult road.<\/p>\n

This transformation, contestation of established power relations and mobility are the foundations of Roma mobilisation, taking various forms: political, ethnic, national, as well as artistic. Together they shape a process that Nicolae Gheorghe (1997), a Roma activist and intellectual, calls ethnogenesis. This means the empowerment of Roma communities and their taking a respected place in the social space. Art has accompanied this process from the very beginning. During the First Roma Congress, held more than 50 years ago in 1971, one of the important topics of discussion was the introduction of Roma symbols, such as the flag and the anthem. Issues related to Roma art also seem to be central to the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture2<\/sup><\/a>, which was recently established.<\/p>\n

The 2007 Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art saw the inauguration of the First Roma Pavilion, also known as the first conscious rebellion of the subaltern (Junghaus 2014, 34), which gained unquestionable publicity and provoked serious discussion on the subject. For this reason, it is worth noting that, despite appearances to the contrary, Roma art and politics have much in common. In both cases, one can see the minority’s desire for self-expression and representation through a medium controlled by the social majority. This medium, however, has previously reproduced discriminatory and harmful images of Roma, spreading a false, stereotypical image of this community. Both the Roma political and artistic movements are thus not only a sign of social change among the Roma, but also an expression of their desire to leave the place assigned to them by the majority and to enter into dialogue with it on an equal footing, while challenging its exclusive powers to control the minority and to shape the discourse on the minority.<\/p>\n

For many years, however, there was no institution that cared about the cultural heritage of the Roma and its development, about the political and cultural recognition of the contribution of Roma communities to cultural development, either at national or pan-European level. The Roma themselves were deprived of the protection of this cultural resource, which would not be processed by non-Roma. There was no space for both cultural production, the stimulation of creativity and the interpretation of their culture. And this is not just about politics in the cultural arena, but about the status of minorities and the protection of cultural diversity as the foundation of democratic societies. Cultural and political recognition of minorities is an essential process for building cohesive societies built on multiculturalism, especially in the context of Central and Eastern Europe (cf. Junghaus 2014).<\/p>\n

Recent years have seen a great acceleration in this respect in the field of art. Not only has an institution been set up to provide support and patronage for Roma art, but a Roma artist has also represented the Polish National Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2022. The institution in question is the aforementioned European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), a supranational European organisation based in Berlin. As a joint initiative of the Council of Europe, the Open Society Foundations and an initiative of Roma leaders (Alliance for a European Roma Institute of Arts and Culture), ERIAC is intended to educate and inform non-Roma about Roma art and culture, and to help foster understanding, tolerance and mutual respect between Roma and non-Roma communities. Above all, ERIAC aims to be a space for Roma artists and an institution that cares for Roma cultural heritage. The aim is to raise awareness among European institutions, policy makers and stakeholders about the role of Roma arts and culture, and to build broad partnerships across Europe (and beyond) in support of Roma communities.<\/p>\n

Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas’s art carries a powerful charge of demythologising and deconstructing the previous treatment of Roma culture and communities.<\/b> It combines ancient history but also a contemporary message. In the 127-year history of the Venice Art Biennale, this is the first time that a representative of the Roma community has represented the national pavilion. The very title of the exhibition, „Re-enchanting the World”, made direct reference to the history of the Roma in Europe and Poland. History was not only reconstructed here, but reformulated, redefined and re-read.<\/p>\n

„Re-enchanting the World” is the artist’s contemporary manifesto on Roma history, identity and art, drawing inspiration from Renaissance astrological frescoes from the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara. The Polish Pavilion in Venice was transformed into a 'palace of paintings’, with an installation of twelve large-format fabrics, corresponding to the twelve months of the calendar. „We are talking about ourselves, not someone else who just sees us from the sidelines. This is the re-echanting of the world,” says Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas in a video that prepares viewers for what the viewer will encounter at the exhibition (Zakrzewska, 2023). The title of Ma\u0142gorzata Mirga-Tas’s exhibition, \u201cRe-enchanting the World\u201d, was inspired by and comes from Silvia Federici’s book \u201cRe-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons\u201d (2018). The artist, together with the curators of the exhibition (Joanna Warsza and Wojciech Szyma\u0144ski), performs a re-appropriation, proposing a re-enchantment of the world as a way of reclaiming proactivity and community, as well as reviving and rebuilding relationships with the 'other’ in the broadest sense. The exhibition is based on the idea of transnationality, cyclicality and shows the interpenetration of mutual influences between Roma, Polish and European culture.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is an ambitious attempt to expand the narrative and history of art to include representations of the culture of the Roma, Europe’s largest transnational minority and community. The exhibition consists of twelve large-format textiles, corresponding to the twelve months of the calendar. Each panel consists of three horizontal strips:<\/p>\n